In wireless communication systems, the Interconnection of type B (IUB for short hereinafter) interface is a logic interface between a Radio Network Controller (RNC for short) and a NodeB. The Interconnection of RNC (IUR) interface, which is an interface used by the radio network controller to exchange signaling and data with other radio network controllers, is the tie of interconnection between radio network subsystems.
When a terminal sets up a connection to a radio access network and generates soft handover at the IUR interface, resources of more than one radio network controller will be used, and different radio network controllers will function as different roles at this point.
A Serving Radio Network Controller (SRNC for short) is a radio network controller which maintains a connection between the terminal and an interface of a core network. The serving radio network controller is responsible for data transmission between the core network and the terminal and forwarding and receiving of signaling to/from the interface of the core network, is responsible for control of radio resources, and is responsible for processing of data of an air interface at layer 2 and management operations of basic radio resources, such as handover decision, outer loop power control and transformation of radio access bearer parameters to air interface transmission channel parameters, etc.
A Drift Radio Network Controller (DRNC for short) is a radio network controller other than the serving radio network controller. The drift radio network controller controls a cell used by the terminal, and can perform macro diversity combination if desired. Unless the terminal uses a common transmission channel, the drift radio network controller will not process user plane data at layer 2, but only transfer air interface data transparently to the serving radio network controller via routing of the IUR interface. There may be more than one drift radio network controller for one terminal.
The object of the high-speed uplink packet access technology is to improve capacity and data throughout in an uplink direction and reduce delay in a dedicated channel. A new transmission channel, i.e., Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH for short) is introduced by the high-speed uplink packet access technology to improve implementation of a physical layer and a media access control layer so as to achieve a maximum theoretical uplink data rate of 5.6 Mb/s. The high-speed uplink packet access technology reserves the characteristics of the soft handover.
In the high-speed uplink packet access technology, a data transmission mode is that a Media Access Control-i (MAC-i for short hereinafter) protocol data unit received via the air interface is de-multiplexed into a Media Access Control-improved segment (MAC-is for short hereinafter) protocol data unit, which is put into enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames, to be transmitted from a NodeB to a serving radio network controller via a transport bearer corresponding to media access control streams (each media access control stream having a corresponding IUB interface and/or IUR interface transport bearer) in a form of the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames.
If the NodeB belongs to the serving radio network controller, the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames are transmitted directly from the NodeB to the serving radio network controller without a relay of the drift radio network controller, as shown in FIG. 1. After receiving the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames, the serving radio network controller parses data carried in the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames depending on only control information, such as data amount, data length, etc., which is also carried in the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames, without additional context information and additionally recording the context information.
If the NodeB belongs to the drift radio network controller, the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames are transmitted from the NodeB to the drift radio network controller, and forwarded by the drift radio network controller to the serving radio network controller, as shown in FIG. 2. The drift radio network controller only provides transmission network layer resources to forward the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames to the serving radio network controller. Radio network layer resources of the drift radio network controller are bypassed and the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames and their specific contents can not be seen, that is, the drift radio network controller can only transparently forward the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames, and can not view the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames and reset their contents.
With the development of the technology, it is desirable that a dual-carrier high-speed uplink packet access technology (which enables the terminal to transmit data on two carriers with the high-speed uplink packet access technology, so as to redouble the uplink data rate) is introduced into existing systems. A carrier of the two carriers which contains a High-Speed Dedicated Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH for short) is referred to as a primary carrier, and the other carrier of the two carriers is referred to as a secondary carrier. For a terminal, each carrier in the two carriers has its own independent enhanced dedicated channel activation set (or is referred to as micro diversity). The introduction of the dual-carrier high-speed uplink packet access technology needs to consider the extensibility of subsequent multiple carriers (such as three carriers, four carriers). A carrier in the multiple carriers which contains the High-Speed Dedicated Physical Control Channel is referred to as a primary carrier, and other carriers are referred to as the second carrier, the third carrier, and the fourth carrier in the four carriers, respectively.
In the existing technology, a specific configuration method for the terminal using the multi-carrier high-speed uplink packet access technology is as follows.
When there are not only primary carrier enhanced dedicated channel cells but also secondary carrier enhanced dedicated channel cells among all cells which are dominated by a NodeB or drift radio network controller and provide radio resources for terminals using the multi-carrier high-speed uplink packet access technology, the serving radio network controller notifies the NodeB or drift radio network controller of carrier identifiers corresponding to any two or more carriers in the multiple carriers only when setting up or adding enhanced dedicated channel cells of any two or more carriers in the multiple carriers in advance. In a complex scene, there is NodeB 1 (there is both cell 1 which is a primary carrier enhanced dedicated channel cell and cell 2 which is a secondary carrier enhanced dedicated channel cell under NodeB 1) and drift radio network controller 2 (there is both cell 4 which is a primary carrier enhanced dedicated channel cell and cell 5 which is a secondary carrier enhanced dedicated channel cell under drift radio network controller 2) as shown in FIG. 3. In this scene, only when setting up or adding enhanced dedicated channel cells of the primary carrier and the secondary carrier in advance, the serving radio network controller notifies NodeB 1 of the carrier identifiers corresponding to the two carriers respectively, the carrier identifier corresponding to the carrier of cell 1 in the two carriers being the primary carrier (or the first carrier) and the carrier identifier corresponding to the carrier of cell 2 in the two carriers being the secondary carrier (or the second carrier); and notifies drift radio network controller 2 of the carrier identifiers corresponding to the two carriers respectively, the carrier identifier corresponding to the carrier of cell 4 in the two carriers being the primary carrier (or the first carrier) and the carrier identifier corresponding to the carrier of cell 5 in the two carriers being the secondary carrier (or the second carrier).
In the case that there is only an enhanced dedicated channel cell of a single carrier in the multiple carriers among all cells which are dominated by a NodeB or drift radio network controller and provide radio resources for terminals using the multi-carrier high-speed uplink packet access technology, the serving radio network controller sets up or adds the enhanced dedicated channel cell of the single carrier in the multiple carriers in advance in a traditional single carrier mode, and does not notify the NodeB or drift radio network controller of any information of the multiple carriers and a carrier identifier corresponding to the single carrier. The NodeB or drift radio network controller can only see and believe that the terminal uses single carrier resources, and does not know that the terminal uses the multi-carrier high-speed uplink packet access technology (only uses resources of the single carrier in the multiple carriers under the NodeB or drift radio network controller), and certainly also does not know the carrier identifier corresponding to the single carrier in the multiple carriers. In the scene as shown in FIG. 3, there are NodeB 2 (there is only enhanced dedicated channel cell 3 of a single carrier (the primary carrier) in the multiple carriers under NodeB 2) and drift radio network controller 3 (there is only enhanced dedicated channel cell 6 of a single carrier (the secondary carrier) in the multiple carriers under drift radio network controller 3). In this scene, when serving radio network controller 1 sets up or adds an enhanced dedicated channel cell of the single carrier (the primary carrier or the secondary carrier) in advance using the traditional single carrier mode, it does not notify the NodeB and/or drift radio network controller of any information of the multiple carriers and the carrier identifier corresponding to the single carrier.
In the existing technology, an “uplink multiplexing information” information element is added to an enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frame to adapt the introduction of the dual-carrier high-speed uplink packet access technology. The “uplink multiplexing information” is used to represent a carrier identifier of a carrier from which the data carried in the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames is received. In the existing technology, the serving radio network controller must determine whether data carried in the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames is from the primary carrier or from the secondary carrier so as to reorder the data and perform micro-diversity combination based on individual carriers. Once the received data from different carriers are confused, the serving radio network controller can not distinguish the data, and can not normally reorder the data and perform micro-diversity combination, and all data is erroneous, resulting in unavailability of actual services and final offline of the terminal.
Based on the configuration and usage mode in the existing technology, in the scene illustrated in FIG. 3, the following conditions will occur (see FIG. 4).
Serving radio network controller 1 receives, via the IUR interface, an enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frame numbered 1 which is forwarded by drift radio network controller 3. Data carried in the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frame is actually from the secondary carrier; however, there is no carrier identifier describing the secondary carrier in the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frame.
Serving radio network controller 1 receives, via the IUB interface, enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames numbered 3 and 4 which are transmitted by NodeB 1. Data carried in the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frame numbered 3 is actually from the primary carrier, and “uplink multiplexing information” in this frame is indicated as “the primary carrier”. Data carried in the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frame numbered 4 is actually from the secondary carrier, and “uplink multiplexing information” in this frame is indicated as “the secondary carrier”.
Serving radio network controller 1 receives, via the IUB interface, an enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frame numbered 5 which is transmitted by NodeB 2. Data carried in the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frame is actually from the primary carrier; however, there is no carrier identifier describing the secondary carrier in this enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frame.
Serving radio network controller 1 receives, via the IUR interface, enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames numbered 6 and 7 which are forwarded by drift radio network controller 2. Data carried in the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames numbered 6 and 7 is actually from both the primary carrier and the secondary carrier; however, there is no carrier identifier describing the secondary carrier in these enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frames.
Thus, the problem that a serving radio network controller can not determine whether the data carried in the enhanced dedicated channel uplink data frame is from the primary carrier or the secondary carrier will occur in the existing technology. The radio network controller can not determine the source of the data, and thus can not normally reorder the data and perform micro-diversity combination, and all data is discarded erroneously, resulting in unavailability of actual services and final offline. It also means that the existing multi-carrier high-speed uplink packet access technologies are unavailable.